Tyler learns how to ski!!! (Week 189/51)

Exciting week it's been - we introduced Tyler to snowsports!

But first, I got to enjoy some time out with my fellow mommy friends (our kids all play together) for a late night dinner on Friday.  Of course we didn't meet until past 8pm when the kids (at least mine!) were just about asleep in bed.  (Note: we're trying really hard to break Katelyn of the habit of nursing to sleep at bedtime.  It's so easy to do but we're trying to get her better at falling asleep on her own).  Anyway, wow, there sure are a lot of people out and about after 8pm on a Friday night.  I would not remember since it's been too long!  It was a great fun night - can't wait to do it again! :)  ... and yes, we mostly talked about things related to our kids anyway! haha!

Saturday, in the crazy pouring rain, I took Tyler to watch his first ever violin recital in Diamond Bar.  My violin teacher Diana and her husband Joseph still run a successful violin studio there and I was so excited to bring Tyler to listen to her students.  She has a couple that are just barely 5 years old!  I was quite proud of myself as well since I drove Tyler and myself there all by myself (Will was home with a sleeping Katelyn).  Listening to the students play brought back so many memories of all the hours I spent practicing, competing and performing.  Very nostalgic.  Tyler was able to keep his interest for about the first half hour, and then it was time to keep him quiet with my iPhone.  Here he is (the back of his head anyway) watching a little girl perform.

I'm not feeling this picture of me but I like that it's with Diana and Joseph.  These two were wonderful to me and put in a lot of hard work and dedication to help me improve as a violinist!  I can't believe so many years have passed since high school...

And here's Tyler with Diana!  I have flashes of the future where Tyler is taking lessons from her, but the necessary weekly drive to Diamond Bar from Irvine seems quite daunting.  I may find him a teacher around here first, and then move him over to her when he gets better.  Mission accomplished overall though - Tyler came home and was excited to take out his own violin and play around with it!  Yes, my ears felt like they were going to fall off my head and I grimaced with every screech, but you have to start somewhere right?

Sunday.  SUNDAY!  I was very excited since we were planning on taking Tyler skiing for the first time!  What a wonderful idea (thanks Mariam)!  Will's parents came over bright and early (7am, I was hoping to leave earlier but didn't want them to have to wake up THAT early...) to watch Katelyn and Will and I headed off with Tyler to Mountain High.   Of course, had to have a quick stop at Starbucks before we hit the road.  Tyler was really excited!  He had no idea what skiing was except that it involved snow and that some of his friends had done it as well.  That, and probably spending time alone with us - he was in a really great mood!

The drive to Mountain High is amazingly fast.  And since it had snowed the night before, there was SO much new fresh snow on the mountains!  Take it from me, a snow snob who only wants to snowboard at Tahoe or Mammoth (or better...), it was actually not disappointing like I had prepared myself for!  We missed the 10am kid group class so we opted for a private 1 hr session instead.  After getting tickets, we headed over to get rentals for Tyler.  This was what I was worried about the whole drive up - Tyler and ski boots.  Really!  Tyler has this weird issue with tight shoes.  He just can't stand it and will fuss if his shoes or socks are too tight.  Ski boots?  They have to be snug, right?  Tyler started fussing about his tight boot and I held my breath...but then we got the next size up and he was fine!  WHEW!

How cute is Tyler's little Burton beanie?

Family picture!  We were really excited (and a little nervous) about how Tyler was going to do!

We took off Tyler's beanie to get his helmet fitted - and he had Justin Bieber hair underneath!

We headed out to the bunny slopes and we were ready to go!  Tyler was all about wearing his helmet and goggles!

Family picture on the bunny slopes!

I'm not sure how helpful our instructor was (nothing mind blowing was taught or anything) but I think it was good for Tyler to have someone else teaching him instead of Will and me.  I was so proud watching him as he listened to his teacher and kept trying to get better.  I was (unfortunately) expecting a meltdown but Tyler did GREAT!

"Pizza" is to point the edges of your skis together in plow formation to slow down, and "French Fries" is to have them parallel so you can go fast!  Two foods that Tyler is definitely very familiar with!

We even got to spend a little time with M!  Thanks M for giving us the idea to join you guys up there!

Loved the magic carpet - so nice and easy to get up the bunny slope hill.

Tyler was great at getting off it and skiing down the little slope himself.

He had to take the helmet off after several runs because his hair was WET with SWEAT!  Aww!  Go Tyler - working up quite a sweat!

Tyler must have done that bunny slope run 6-7x before his hour was up.  I was SO proud of him!  Here he is with his teacher (19 year old) Rowland!

I really am not too familiar with skis - but apparently snow can get stuck on the bottom of the boot and then they're hard to latch into the skis.  Wait, the same thing can happen to snowboard boots too!  Tyler wasn't there yet, he still needed help getting his skis on.

So next we decided to trek a little bit down the side of the mountain and take a chairlift up to a steeper bunny slope.  O M G that chairlift took FOREVER! I felt myself aging as we were sitting around on it.  One exciting thing though - I didn't fall down when I got off the chairlift. YAY!

And then my camera battery died.  Ahh! Thank goodness I still had my iPhone camera!  Tyler did good on the bunny slope as well, and we decided to take him up to the top of the mountain!  (Of course, this is only after confirming that there is a nice green run up there, and to come back down the mountain you can take the chairlift down).  Tyler was so cute standing in line for the lift - he was so tiny compared to everyone else!

Adrenaline was pumping all day long!  By the time we got on the chairlift, it was probably 2pm and not only had Tyler used a lot of energy all morning, but he was also running on fumes since he didn't have a nap!  The result? Tyler fell asleep on the chairlift ride up.  Good timing, since its quite a long trip up.  He was SUPER groggy when we got to the top and was nowhere near alert enough to get off the lift by himself!  Thank goodness the lift controller slowed down the lift and Will pretty much carried Tyler off.  Ooh, and I didn't fall again!  Yay!  Here's sleeping Tyler.

We took a little break at the top of the mountain for some juice and snacks - but no real food since the restaurant was closed for some reason!  Bad idea, we were so hungry...

The ride down the green didn't go so well.  Tyler was tired and had lost a lot of his earlier enthusiasm.  Then he crashed near a bunch of trees and got some snow into his shirt.  This led to a lot of crying and sad whining "mamaaaaa, mamaaaaa".  Uhoh.  There were tears of exhaustion and finally I took his skis and Will snowboarded down while carrying him.  Poor Tyler, he was so tired, but I'm glad he had fun.  Here's the video I made (iMovie is my new friend!) to remember Tyler's first ski trip!

Miscellaneous photos:

Katelyn playing on the swings in a nearby park!

What's going on over there?

Oh, it's Tyler climbing!

I'm not sure where Katelyn is in this picture when Will took it!

Aha, there she is - near the slides!

Cutie Katelyn!

She's getting so much better at walking too now - although she has to be in a good mood.  If you want her to walk and she doesn't feel like it, she'll definitely protest loudly!  This picture looks like she's saying - Just one second....

Oh yes!  Katelyn's newly painted room!  I could not get the color to show up right in the photos for some reason - it seems like you can barely see the color - but it's much prettier in real life.  When the painters put the furniture back in, they put it differently than what we originally had - but I liked what they did better!

And Katelyn's new closet!  I really wish I had a "before" photo of the closet, but they were SO hideous that I never bothered taking any pictures of them!  Let's just say they were hideous - like a tan color with gold trim.  Shudder.  LOVE her new ones!

Here's the family enjoying the new room!  I LOVE IT!  I haven't decided what I want to put on the wall behind the futon though... any suggestions anyone?  Next post I'll post some photos of the spare bathroom that we painted as well!

This picture I took on my phone last week.  Why?  Well, I was driving on the freeway and was SO distracted by how beautiful the sky was.  Seriously!  Like, the sky was such a deep blue and all you could see in every direction you looked were white puffy clouds.  (That's not the sun in the middle, it was my flash against my car window).  Just wanted to share how beautiful it has been down here!

And lastly, since this is the first time it's ever happened - a picture of Katelyn asleep in her high chair!  If only getting her to nap was this easy...